Lerner, the IRS unit chief overseeing tax-exempt applications, advised the committee, through her counsel, that instead of testifying, she would be claiming her Fifth Amendment privileges against self-incrimination. Everything was scripted and choreographed. All she had to do was to appear and state, “I refuse to answer on the grounds that it may tend to incriminate me,” in reply to each question submitted by the committee members.

But Lerner went off-script.

Story continued with video from Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz who succinctly outlines the law with respect to waiving one’s Fifth Amendment privileges